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This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Leadership & Organization Development Journal is split into four sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Culture, Change and Intervention; Management Styles and Techniques; Leadership and Decision; Communications.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the International Journal of Bank Marketing is split into five sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Marketing Strategy; Customer Service; Sales and Promotion; Product Development; Information Technology Strategies.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Marketing Intelligence & Planning is split into seven sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Marketing Strategy; Customer Service; Sales Management; Promotion; Marketing Research/Customer Behaviour; Product Management; Logistics and Distribution.

To underestimate service quality is like saying goodbye to some of your hard‐earned profits. Even after revamping and upgrading products, many organizations continue to experience decline because they forget that people want to feel good. The feel‐good factor is espoused by politicians throughout the world to nurture votes. The fact that people want to feel good is often overlooked and ignores Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. How many times have you bought a product only to find there is a fault and the product needs replacing? This is normally something which is very irritating, but not ulcer‐inducing enough to get worked up about until, that is, the customer service department treats you as though it is your fault.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of Industrial Management & Data Systems is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Manufacturing strategy and production; Business process management ; Research and development; Industrial design; Quality management; Information systems.

That someone can make you feel good is a quality in itself. There has been much talk within British government circles, for example, about “the feel‐good factor”, which is constantly reminding us that it is just around the corner! Whether or not we can believe in this is another matter, but it certainly displays an awareness that making other people feel good can have positive benefits for you also. How this can be achieved will differ depending on your particular line of business. Having a good quality product does not in itself guarantee success as service quality must also be taken into account. This is where the feel‐good factor comes into play. It is all very well, for example, going to a restaurant to have a top‐class meal (in that the food was good), only to have it thrown at you. Quality, therefore, must not be seen as a separate entity, but more as a package deal.

It is all too easy in the hectic world of business to get too involved with the day‐to‐ day managing of processes and events. When this happens it is difficult to see the wood for the trees and the automatic pilot syndrome takes over. This does not suggest that you do not know what you are doing ‐ on the contrary you are probably as switched on to whatever activity you are managing as anyone could be. What you could be missing, however, is the explanation as to why you are doing it. If this sounds familiar to you, what might be needed is a detached period from your work. By this I mean stay on the high ground for a while so you can get an overview of what you are doing and, more importantly, why you are doing it. How many managers, I wonder, get the opportunity to question what they are doing? If you allow yourself to slip into complacency then you and your organization will soon lose competitive advantage.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Journal of European Industrial Training is split into seven sections covering abstracts under the following headings: General Training Issues; Education & Students; Training/Learning Techniques; Training Technology; Skills Training; Management Development; Career/HR Development.

Recent years have highlighted the emphasis placed on quality. It is a word often heard around many an organization, but can mean different things to different people.The Japanese have certainly jumped on the bandwagon with vigour, and have tried to include total quality in almost everything they do, looking increasingly to improve their processes at every conceivable stage. Recent emphasis has been heavily placed on product reliability, thus ensuring that the final product does not let the customer down. Quality in this instance quite simply refers to the processes leading up to the end product itself. This can throw up even more tantalizing questions, such as trying to decide what your actual product is. Am I, for example, selling you, the reader, the actual journal or the information contained within? Does quality mean to you, therefore, the quality of the cover, the paper, and the print, or is it the quality of the information, or indeed both. This issue of IJHCQA, will hopefully go some way towards answering these types of questions, and take a closer look at a number of “strategies for service quality”.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of Employee Relations is split into seven sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Design of Work; Performance, Productivity and Motivation; Patterns of work; Pay, incentives and pensions; Career/manpower planning, recruitment; Industrial relations and participation; Health and safety.